Save with Innovation in your Digital Marketing and Supply Chain

Public Policy

December 10, 2013

Every leader in business or public life must wonder at the enormous global goodwill and affection on display at the Nelson Mandela funeral today. What was it in Mandela that inspired people worldwide? Mandela was one leader who power did not corrupt.

But first some background about the quote " Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Attributed to Lord Acton in the 19th century, the classic quote seems true even today. Wherever you look, you see leaders trying to hold on to power in different cultures,countries and organizations right from the village elections to national elections, let alone the out and out dictators of the world. The cynical part of Lord Acton's observation is that once someone has absolute power like Mandela the first black president of South Africa after ending apartheid, you can be be sure that the person would be taking revenge. Payback to South African whites for 27 years in prison and numerous insults under the apartheid regime.Revenge and retribution, given an opportunity, being a particularly noxious form of corruption. Shockingly, Mandela chose to forgive his tormentors and instead promoted peace,harmony and recociliation among all sections of South African society.

Just to recall, Mahatma Gandhi was thrown out of a first class railway car in South African because of his color in 1893, much before apartheid launched officially in 1948 and ended in 1994. It was the pre-apartheid experiences in South Africa that motivated Gandhi to liberate India from colonial British rule in 1947. Notably Mahatma Gandhi never held formal leadership positions in the Indian Government. Even if he had, he would not have sought retribution, despite an estimated 61/2 years in jail.

There are two conditions here. First a leader like Gandhi or Mandela is treated very badly for standing up for some much needed change including jail time. Second, the required change happens and the leader finds himself in power. Formal power for Mandela as President of South Africa and great and enduring power without formal office as for Gandhi. These leaders, when in power try to unite everyone rather than dividing them.

No "winner take all" policy here.... a new CEO comes and replaces everyone, in some cases several management layers in the entire organization, starting with the secretary and chauffuer. Whoever remains feels alienated. Contrast this with Mandela and the white Afrikaner guard Rory Steyn, who was tapped to be President Mandela's personal security guard in 1994.

As President, Mandela served only till 1999 or 5 years. This one is quite remarkable when you see all manner of monarchs, political leaders and of course business leaders who just do not want to give up power. Hopefully, the fact that there were four US Presidents at the Mandela funeral including Barrack Obama, George W Bush, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter sent a message to the assembled leaders and the world audience that the US has a cap of two terms for the US President that total a maximum of eight years. And that it's perfectly alright to be a respected former President.

Some things to think about, in this holiday and giving season, as we remember Mandela. Contact StratoServe.

For Michigan, the online move was not without dissent from Michigan legislators who raised concerns about the increased possibility of gaming addiction , increased credit card debt and a lowering of customer footfalls into brick and retailer lotto stores. As all states start to grapple with these important public policy issues- here are some thoughts:

Lottery research: Lottery related research has picked up over the last decade under the categories of gambling and gaming research. This as research suggests that most people don't think of lottery ticket buying as gambling simply because lottery stores are everywhere and the state is involved in running the lottery worldwide. A nice review of lottery research appears in the Journal of Gambling Studies by Thai scholar V. Ariyabuddhiphongs.

The State is able to raise money from the public through lottery sales without raising income or property taxes

Funding for worthy causes like public school education is achieved through lotteries. Thus, Michigan Lottery has contributed over $17 Billion to the school system since 1972

Helps decrease illegal gambling

Compared to taxes that are mandatory, lottery ticket buying is voluntary

Lottery Addiction and Internet: Economists Jonathan Guryan and Melissa Kearney define lottery ticket buying as an addiction when ticket purchases increase over time. You buy one ticket today and keep increasing your ticket buying just to improve your chances without realizing what Ariyabuddhiphongs concludes:if you bought a ticket every day from birth and lived to be 100 it would take you 383 life times to win a lotto! Prior research suggests that parents playing lotto is a good predicter of their children playing lotto as they grow up. Whether Internet will accelerate lotto playing among the more tech savvy younger people will need to be studied.

Credit cards and online lotto tickets: When you buy a lotto ticket you have to pay cash at a retailer. How purchases, credit card debt and addiction might be affected will be interesting to watch as Michigan and other states adopt online lottery ticket sales.

Retailers will be adversely affected: Currently retailers in the lottery business are the distribution channel for tickets . There are about 11,000 retailers in Michigan who collectively make about $172 million in commissions according to the annual reports of Michigan Lottery. While the per retailer commissions are modest at about $15,000 per year- the question of loss of footfalls will need careful study. Eventually if retailers lose too much income they might get out of lottery retailing. Keep in mind, that the enormous point of sale publicity including the "we had a winner" posters have changed public perceptions about lottery being more "fun" than "gambling."

Online selling of lottery tickets seems like an obvious thing to do today. But just as the upcoming "Black Friday" is about brick retailers having their day - there is great charm in buying a lottery ticket at the convenience store along with the milk and some light conversation with the retailer. This as various other customers hang out reading the newspaper (yes. the paper version) and sipping coffee that cannot be done online, as yet.Contact StratoServe.

October 22, 2013

The problems with the Obamacare website forced the President himself to address the issues yesterday of... a website? Just a few years ago- organizations including Government, non-profit and small businesses used to wonder if they should have a website. In teaching and learning, students would complain loudly about the problems of online learning platforms and senior faculty would talk about the "feel of real chalk" when explaining advanced calculus on a traditional blackboard instead of a virtual Blackboard. All this incredible change in the last 5-7 years.

The problems with the Obamacare website is centerstage today and this blog empathizes with Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in the video above, the entire IT team including the contractors involved because everyone missed the biggest change of all :

Digital Expectations

Digital expectations is the real "flat world" where a person with an Internet connection in Sub-Saharan Africa has the same access as a Boston Brahmin contemplating the New England fall colors. Denizens of both these diametrically opposite places know that a) Twitter works and they both use Twitter and b) Facebook works beautifully and c) Google is always there for what you do not know .. and it works.They have high digital expectations!

The Bostonian, with more disposable income, uses Amazon.com more frequently than Amazon.com customers in sub- Saharan Africa but both understand the "quality" of the digital experience.

The problems with the Obamacare website is a wake-up call to all manner of software developers including:

Enterprise software : The famous ERP program SAP has been called Slow and Painful. Because of its excellent quality folks have endured , but digital expectations are rising.

Non-Profit Websites: Non profit websites always got kinder treatment from the public including beneficiaries,donors and volunteers, but here too digital expectations are on the rise.

Small Business Websites: Small businesses would console themselves that after all they were "small" but being small is no longer an excuse for a poor web visitor experience.

Naturally the lesson from the Obamacare website performance is a great message for Governments worldwide whether local,state or national that merely declaring an e-governance initiative or an e-service is not enough. The public,worldwide, expects at least a near "Facebook" type experience (and by the way Facebook is free). Writing clean software code and simple programs that are repeatedly beta tested early in new software development is something the public assumes. Similarly, even if your software is an "internal" one for your customer like ERP systems, you cannot continue to provide a clunky experience because a competitor will come up with an easy working friendly cloud solution and displace you. If you have existing clients inside organizations, its a good idea to innovate faster because just listen, your users are already comparing your software to the dismal healthcare.gov initial launch experience. Contact StratoServe.

March 05, 2013

The Dow Jones industrial crossed 14,253.77 its
highest ever point and back from the dismal depths of the recession on March 9, 2009 when it
had touched 6,547. Investors and particularly large investors seem to be
feeling upbeat about the stock market and things do seem cheery from a macro
level. The optimism driving the record high stock market includes the following factors:

The housing market has improved by about 10% and sales of new homes rose by 15.6%.
Sales of new homes encourage a whole lot of spending on appliances,
furniture and home goods.

Companies have become more efficient, more global and
more technology oriented. The worldwide recession has got all
organizations trying to do more with less. This includes a) Using
technology and the Internet (including "cloud computing") as
much as possible (b) Outsource goods and services globally if the total
cost is lower (c) find and develop lower end of the market in the US and
global emerging markets. This time the lower end offerings in the US
Market finds huge numbers in growth markets like China, India so it is
becoming possible to truly globalize at the market end.

The Stock market seems to ignore the problems of the Federal budget sequester.
The market believes that companies will find a way despite political
gridlock.

On this rather cheerful day a sad
note is that unemployment in the US is at 12.3
million and 47 million are on food stamps. When will the US economy
and jobs recover? Or the other way around- when will US jobs and the economy
recover – for without jobs and income, consumer spending remains subdued.

This paradox of the stock market
zooming while the economy and jobs stagnate is hard to understand. Here are
some thoughts:

Companies will hire people in the later part of 2013
and 2014. Unemployment should reduce but these are for folks with skills
that are needed in the new economy.

Old jobs like in traditional manufacturing that
are outsourced are not coming back. Same with technology jobs that can be
outsourced, are not coming back as well.

Folks displaced from the workforce during the recession can
try and find skills for the US jobs of tomorrow ( e.g. healthcare) or be
willing to move to manufacturing type trade skill work in the housing
industry. For new houses do need plumbers, electricians and cable TV
installers and this segment cannot be outsourced.

Thus, some challenges for older
workers unable to re-train and younger workers who might have training that is
not very relevant for the new economy. All this provided housing continues to
recover and investments continue in US infrastructure to accommodate skilled
manufacturing workers and the right skilled workforce becomes available. Contact StratoServe.

December 24, 2012

The Connecticut shootings have been heartbreaking.
The question on everyone's minds is why and how to avoid
recurrences. Having recently visited Philadelphia, one wonders about the Second Amendment times of Thomas Jefferson in 1791.
Could the Connecticut shootings have happened in the 1790's? Probably not, if you consider the technology factor:

While schools existed, schools particularly for small
children might not have been common. It appears that the oldest
Connecticut School might have been Hopkins founded in 1660 and that took
students from grade 7. It was unlikely that 20 small children sat in a
classroom in the 1790's. We have progressed in elementary education a
great deal since 1791.

The discrimination associated with mental disorders was
much higher in the 1790's and would have probably isolated the killer
socially. Today we have progressed a great deal in trying to integrate psychiatric
patients into society.

Video games, movies and entertainment exists today that
did not in 1790's. The NRA suggests that
these have an influence in promoting violent behavior. Here technology has
made progress and helps entertain folks and large numbers of people do
feel that they encourage violent thinking - if not actual action.

The technology clincher is really in gun technology
from the 1790's to today and what a gun owner can afford and access at a Walmart.
That civilians can afford and buy machine guns legally has been made
possible with the leaps that technology has taken in every industry in the
last few decades. This includes the gun and arms industry which is able to
produce quick firing machine guns. So instead of the Western movie cowboy
being fast on the "draw" the speed can come from the weapon
itself today.

Between 1790 and today lots of
social change has occurred and significantly the technology of guns has
substantially improved. The latter is one of the major reasons that resulted in
the large number of casualties in Virginia Tech, Arizona, Colorado and now
Sandy Hook, Connecticut. Among the many steps needed to curb gun violence
restrictions on automatic weapons would be an important step to reconcile the
spirit of the second amendment with advances in gun technology. Contact StratoServe.

November 07, 2012

Most folks in America did not expect
that the Presidential election results would be called yesterday, November 6 by
the news channels just after 11 pm US Eastern time. As more results came in,
President Obama seems to have won by a landslide, going by electoral votes. The
re-election of President Obama, a Republican majority in Congress and a
Democratic majority in the Senate is not
a status quo as Alan Greenspan says.
Here are some thoughts why:

The Dow plunged today
given that the stock market was expecting Governer Romney to win and the
real concern over the fiscal cliff of $600 Billion of tax increases and
spending cuts that the Republican Party majority Congress and the
Democratic Party President and Senate must decide on before January
1.In addition coal related stocks are down amidst fears that an Obama
administration will be tough on coal seen as polluting the environment by
the Obama administration. In addition the election of Elizabeth Warren as
a Senator from Massachusetts is seen as Wall Street's worst nightmare.
It was Elizabeth Warren a Harvard
Law Professor who criticized Wall Street and helped set up the US Consumer Financial Protection
Bureau (USCFPB) after the financial collapse of 2007.

Just as Wall Street is re-grouping, politicians on both
sides realize that the American people have spoken. They do not want time
wasted and confusion on things like rolling back Obamacare ( Healthcare shares were up
today) and Americans clearly want both Republicans and Democrats to
work together and find solutions. Accordingly the hardline stance of House
Speaker John Boehner (Republican) and Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid
on the issue of the fiscal cliff is softening.

Although President Obama has won, politicians on both
sides are taken aback by the clarity of purpose of the American
electorate. Candidates that were perceived to understand and
empathize with the plight of the average American seems to have got their
vote. For example, in Connecticut after spending about $100 million for the Senate seat,
the very competent Linda McMahon lost by a wide margin to Chris Murphy.

Economics Nobel Prize winner Amartya Sen concluded from studying
the 1943 Bengal Famine and other world famines, that people died of starvation
not because of lack of food but due to non-democratic regimes that had no incentive
to distribute food to the needy. Thus, no famines occur in democratic societies
as politicians might bicker a lot, but do pull together that deliver results to
the people, lest the next elections result in payback from the electorate.
Although Americans do not face food famines common in the 20th
Century, they do face a famine of economic opportunity. Overcoming the fiscal
cliff is just a minor roadblock that both Republicans and Democrats will surely
overcome. Contact StratoServe.

The Unwatering team gets its
rather unusual name from its function and purpose i.e. remove water from where
it is not supposed to be, like inside a subway tunnel. Apparently the more
traditional "dewatering" is about removing water from a place where
the water could be like a swimming pool that you might want to dewater before
winter. The Unwatering team of the US Army Core of Engineers developed the
unwatering expertise from the 2005 Katrina flooding in New Orleans.

There has been speculation in 2011 about events
like Hurricane Sandy becoming more common perhaps due to climate change. In any
case, many more cities in the world have to contend with subways that might get
flooded for one reason or another.

In 2010 -11 here are some
world cities that got flooded:

Brisbane, Australia the third largest city in Australia
got flooded in January 2011 and became a ghost town.

Given that many city authorities
across the world struggle with the dewatering problem and go out of action for
weeks here may be an opportunity for the Unwatering team of the US
Army Core of Engineers to help flood relief personnel in other countries with
the expertise they have developed in this kind of work.While unwatering does not seem like an innovation in the global knowledge economy, the knowledge and expertise that the unwatering team is developing is extremely valuable to civic authorities across the world.

For most cities of the world would
take significantly more time than New York to clear water from subway tunnels. Contact StratoServe.

October 29, 2012

Hurricane Sandy is arriving today at the East Coast of the US and is being
hailed as a "Super Storm." Hurricanes are a rarity in the East
Coast and local and State Governments, private and public organizations are
pulling out all the stops to keep people safe. Businesses have to wonder what
they can do better, at least next time because it is turning out that Hurricane Irene last
year was not an isolated event for the US East Coast. Here are some
thoughts:

Transportation: In an
unprecedented cautionary move, Connecticut has banned trucks on highways from 11
am and all non-emergency travel on highways from 1.00 pm. Better safe than
sorry is the mantra of all officials across the region. The subway trains have
been closed in New York and generally transportation has ground to a halt
in the East
Coast according to CNN. If you are in the transportation business there is
nothing much you can do except share with customers you are delivering to that
there will be delays. Going forward improving delivery "status"
updates via digital and social media means might at least keep everyone on the same page. Those
businesses that deliver their product or travel to customers or work need
to probably develop routines that can deal with several days of transport
disruption. Delivery schedules could perhaps come under review as soon as this
type of Caribbean hurricane is forecast which provides a week's lead time. If
the processes are in place - customers can be contacted for moving up
deliveries of supplies, before the storm.

Electricity: Electricity
companies across the region are a beleaguered lot. Contractor crews are moving
by road from Texas over 2000 miles (3200 km) away. Since everything is so dependent
on electricity life comes to a complete halt as water gets into substations,
trees fall on power lines and transformers burn out. Since food spoils in the
refrigerator and there is no electricity for the microwave or stove, folks dash
to the coffee shop who cannot offer coffee because most of their equipment is
based on electricity. It's probably time for smaller restaurants to look at the
cost benefit of getting generators or trying liquid petroleum gas as a
standby heating source. Between internet service providers, utility companies,
telephone and wireless providers there needs to be some way of providing a
solution to smaller businesses to keep going as power is restored.

Property Insurance:
Insurance companies and their customers need to probably explicitly deal with
what is hopefully not going to repeat every year. There is a flood
zone provision in most policies but insurance companies need to review their
estimates of what are flood zone regions in such hurricane situations.
Businesses probably should be more receptive and be willing to pay that extra
premium when the insurance company clearly spells out the payment after its actuarial
calculations.

Thus businesses can try and prepare better for transportation, electricity
and insurance matters going forward. Meanwhile this blog wishes all its US East
Coast readers safety during and after Hurricane Sandy. Contact
StratoServe.

July 17, 2012

7-Habits author Steven Covey passed away yesterday and it was just the previous week when a friend and visiting Indian CEO mentioned that Steven Covey's 7 Habits is a great inspiration for him. And this was before the news of Covey's passing so it led to this post about why Steven Covey's ideas resonate across countries and cultures.

"Character not personality" is why 7-Habits - Steven Covey is so popular across so many countries in the world. And this popularity is right from the sidewalk bookseller,selling copies of the "7-Habits" which is much harder that zeroing in on the CEO's of the Fortune 500. As Steven Covey explains in the the video, the character ethic got replaced by the personality ethic in America and appearances became more important. But personality is merely the tip of the iceberg and particularly in B2B relationships it is rather easy to find out about the "character" of the buying or selling organization. And when the underlying character of the organization and its members is not well formed and reinforced it shows in B2B relationships and leads to the common trust deficit problem.Trust deficit leads to recruiting multiple suppliers and smaller buy quantities and all kinds of defensive postures by the supplier like quicker payment terms etc.

But why should an old underlying concept like "character" so help the global popularity of 7-Habits? I guess Steven Covey identified this "Character vs Personality" base for the 7 Habits that resonates across cultures,religion and over time. Personality and appearances are important clarifies Covey. Just because it is summer you don't show up for a formal business meeting in Bermuda shorts ! However, the core character elements that follow from the mission statement ( also product innovation charter ) must receive buy-in from all organizational members. If organization members understand and champion the character principles, it is fairly easy to adjust to changes in terms of mergers. new suppliers or customers, moving across technology leaps like mobile and social media. If your core character and principles are clear and non-negotiable, you should be able to deal with whatever challenge or change comes your way. RIP Steven Covey.Contact StratoServe.

July 11, 2012

Global IT spending is to reach $3.6 trillion in 2012 up from $3.5 trillion in 2011 according to Gartner that is about a 2.86% growth. Here are some things to consider in these numbers:

Cloud means Internet : Following the previous post about what jobs cannot be outsourced from the USA, the cloud means that the data or material is available on the Internet via a password as in Dropbox, Carbonite and other Internet backup services. So what you put up can be worked on from India,Poland or Russia.Think about all the specific tasks you can get done at low cost from overseas. This apart from your own people being able to access a common database. Here Salesforce.com comes to mind as an example, every member of the sales team can acces the status of every sales lead no matter where they are in the world.

IT spending is 23% of US Debt: The US Debt is estimated at $15.88 trillion as of writing this post. Somehow trillion is a unit that reminds one of the US debt. Thus, IT spending in the world is over a fifth of US debt and means that global organizations, both public and private, are thinking cost and efficiencies as they spend this kind of money. All the more reason to think about the Internet and what it means for your profession.

Telecom is $2 Trillion: A full 2/3 of the expenditures are are on telecom and services and that is great news for telecom companies. It is likely that a lot of this money is being spent outside the US.Wireless and mobile is going to be huge, further improving communication and making the world flatter. Embracing this trend worldwide is a huge opportunity for the US entrepreneur and innovator. You can look up the time at another world location on your smart phone and can connect almost free with a partner almost anywhere in the world. In fact, Skype allows you to have video calls for free from your smart phone.

All in all an exciting forecast, full of global opportunities for US business. Contact StratoServe.